BBC unveils Sally Wainwright drama ‘Hot Flush’ & detective series ‘Virdee’ among scripted slate

LR: Sacha Dhawan & AA Dhand

The BBC has unveiled a raft of new scripted projects, with a show from Happy Valley writer Sally Wainwright and Virdee, an adaptation of AA Dhand’s crime novels.

Wainwright returns to the BBC with Hot Flush, which centres on the lives of five women of a certain age who come together to create a makeshift, butt-of-the-joke punk-rock band in order to enter a talent contest.

The six-parter is from Doctor Foster prodco Drama Republic, which was acquired by Mediawan Leonine in 2021, and like Happy Valley will be set in Yorkshire.

Sally Wainwright

Roanna Benn (Doctor Foster) executive produces for Drama Republic, with Clare Shepherd (The A Word) producing.

BBC crime & comedy

BBC drama chief Lindsay Salt, who took up the role last year, has also revealed detective drama Virdee, which is based on Dhand’s crime novels that follow an enigmatic detective.

Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who) is among cast, with the show being produced by newly formed production company Magical Society, headed up by Paul Trijbits (The Casual Vacancy).

The six-parter, adapted for TV by Dhand, tracks a Bradford policeman disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima, who is Muslim. Struggling with the abandonment and constantly attempting to reunite with his family, he must hunt down a killer targeting the Asian community. Cineflix Rights sells worldwide.

The BBC has also confirmed a second drama from Nicôle Lecky, following previous series Mood.

Her next six-part untitled series, which is being produced by Firebird Pictures, follows two best friends who live in a gated community but find their relatively quiet lives disrupted following a shocking scandal at their exclusive private school.

Also on the slate is The Jetty, a thriller from writer Cat Jones and again from Firebird. The four-part drama stars Jenna Coleman (The Cry) as a rookie detective investigating a fire at a holiday home and a podcast journalist investigating a missing person case.

The BBC has also extended comedy thriller Black Ops into a second six-part series, with BBC Studios Comedy Productions and Mondo Deluxe attached.